Danny Phantom in The Reaper Queen
by ZeldaFanDaen
Summary: It was supposed to be a normal ghost capture. We thought that he hadn't a ghost of a chance. It wasn't supposed to be like this! She wasn't supposed to be gone! If I had only been stronger... Now we must face to future... and The Reaper Queen. DF/SM DF/EM
1. Tragedy

James: Well, I'm back… sorta. Ok, my laptop… which is pretty much my _heart_ is currently mostly out of commission. I have been having a lot of problems with it and while it works and I can still write things on it, it has no internet… or sound. Anyway, this sorta came to me and it came hard. I do not own Danny Phantom, but I do think it had the potential to be an excellent series.

I have a pretty good feeling about this fic. It won't be a one shot but I have enough material and ideas to complete it, I think. I know I'm a bit of a flake when it comes to fanfics and I'm sorry about that. Anyway, here it is, the first chapter of

**DANNY PHANTOM: THE REAPER QUEEN**

It was just another peaceful day in Amity Park... as long as you ignored the explosions, screaming, and of course the ghosts. But still, as long as your name wasn't Danny Fenton, you were probably fine.

Unfortunately for our hero, he was, and still is, Danny Fenton, though some call him Danny Phantom. And right now he was running for his afterlife with Skulker, a sadistic, power suit wearing ghost, hot on his spectral tail.

Now, this was nothing new to Danny or his friends, Tucker Foley and Sam Manson, but it was an annoyance as always. You see, Skulker had been 'hunting' Danny for going on three years now, and each time he came with a new trick up his sleeve. The trick this time? Why, a new technologically advanced cyber tank, courtesy of Technus the Computer Ghost, of course. It even came standard with its own anti ghost shield. Points for originality, I suppose... this IS after all the first time Danny had to deal with an actual tank. Still, Skulker seemed to be forgetting one fatal flaw in his plan. The ghost shield only worked on ghosts, not humans and certainly not wireless signals.

"Hey Tuck!" cried Danny into his headset. "Any day now would be nice."

Not far away, well within signal range, stood Tucker Foley, typing away on his PDA, his thumbs moving rapidly across the keys. Standing beside him, with a Fenton Specter Deflector strapped across her waist and a spare Fenton Ghost Thermos in hand, Sam Manson, the Goth Queen of Amity Park and Danny's girlfriend was ready to back her boyfriend up at a moment's notice.

"Just a sec, Danny," said Tucker. "I'm uploading the virus now; man you'd think he'd have learned his lesson after that whole gorilla incident... ah, there we go. Virus uploaded."

With a grin, Tucker grabbed Sam by the arm and pulled her into the nearby alley, just as the tank started going haywire. The ghost shield burst and vanished like a popped bubble. The tank began to spin and bounce, to accelerate forward and then switch suddenly into reverse. Sparks began flying from it in all directions and the barrel began firing randomly, mostly at the sky or at the ground around it. One lucky shot very nearly clipped Danny as he began dodging wildly. And two slammed into the building that made up one side of the alley that Sam and Tucker had taken refuge in. Luckily the building took very minimal damage. The shots were designed to incapacitate Danny after all, not to destroy brick and mortar. Finally, after a few more seconds of chaos, the tank exploded and out flew Skulker, burned and battered, the right arm of his tech suit nearly blown off. To say that he looked angry would have been useless since he always looked that way, but this time it was clear that he was especially peeved.

"Curse you and your friends, Ghost Boy!" he cried, the eyes of his face plate flashing a furious red.

Danny hovered nearby a cocky grin spreading across his face, his arms crossed comfortably across his chest.

"Give it up, Skulker," he said. "We've been through this a dozen times and every time my friends and I win. Maybe it's time for a new hobby... ever try needlepoint?"

As unlikely as it seemed to be, Skulker's expression became even more hateful, his left fist was clenched tightly and the fingers of his half destroyed right hand were twitching frantically, trying to form a fist.

"You think you've won already, eh Ghost Brat?" he spat, glaring bullets at the still smirking Danny.

"Face it Skulker, you're a mess and you're all outta tricks," gloated Danny, floating closer to Skulker in his arrogance. "You're done, Skulker. It's back to the Ghost Zone for you."

Suddenly a satisfied grin replaced Skulker's previous hateful grimace.

"You're right about one thing, boy," he said with a chuckle. "I am done. I'm done _playing with you_! You were a fool, Danny Phantom. You thought I was all out of tricks, but I still have THIS!"

In a sudden motion that caught Danny quite off guard, Skulker brought his arms up and pointed them at Danny. His left arm suddenly turned into what appeared to be a strange looking gun and fired a pulsing red beam. Surprised, Danny was too slow to react. He was a sitting duck when the strange red beam hit him, but instead of blasting him into next week like he was expecting, he felt himself freeze up and the red energy enveloped him. He suddenly felt his powers leaving him as all of his ghost energy was forcibly, and very painfully torn from him and pulled into Skulker's arm by the strange red energy. Danny could hear someone screaming in the distance... someone that sounded a lot like him... and they were definitely suffering.

Hearing their best friend's screams of agony, Sam and Tucker rushed out from the cover of the alley they were hiding in and watched, horrified as they saw the green, spectral silhouette of Danny's inner ghost being torn from his now human body and pulled into Skulker's left arm. As suddenly as it came, the red energy of the beam vanished and Danny Fenton slumped to the ground, barely managing to push his sore and smoking body from the ground. With pain filled eyes, he looked up at Skulker, fear flashing behind his blue eyes for the first time in a long time.

"W-what... did you do to me?" he asked weakly.

Skulker grinned and gave a short burst of barking laughter before bringing his heavily damaged right arm up to point at Danny's prone form.

"I stole every ounce of ghost energy in your body... and now I'm going to concentrate it and use it to blast you straight into the Ghost Zone. Then I'll fly back and pick up your helpless and broken body... and then, finally, I will have you as my trophy! Prepare yourself boy... this _will_ hurt."

Danny bowed his head in defeat as Skulker's arm began to glow and spark, a dark magenta colored energy collecting and spiraling in his palm, ghostly green lightning arcing around it.

Tucker cried out a warning to his friend, his legs frozen with fear for Danny. It was almost a full second before he noticed that Sam was already in motion, sprinting to put herself between her man and the crazed ghost that was about to take him away from her. In one swift motion, she skidded to a halt halfway between Danny and Skulker, tore the top off of the Fenton Ghost Thermos, and pointed it at Skulker, her thumb nearly crushing the activation button.

"You leave Danny alone!!" cried Sam, her voice as hard as steel. "I won't let you touch him!"

Suddenly, several things happened all at once. Hearing Sam's voice so close by, Danny looked up, his neck nearly cracking with how fast his head moved. This allowed him an excellent view of Sam's backside, and of the horror that was about to occur.

The next thing to happen was the firing of the trapping beam from the Fenton Thermos in Sam's hands, followed immediately after by the firing of a very thin, very concentrated beam of dark purple and glowing green energy from Skulker's hand. Half way between teenage girl and evil ghost, the two beams met. For a moment it seemed they were evenly matched, repelling each other, but then both Skulker's arm and the Thermos gave off several violent sparks and popping noises. The thermos cracked and the arm exploded. Suddenly the thin, evil looking beam of corrupted ghost energy pierced through the green capture beam of the Thermos, then through the Thermos itself and, easily shorting out the Specter Deflector, the beam pierced through Sam. There was a great flash of light and a pulse of ectoplasmic energy. A shill scream pierced through the sounds of the explosion and fierce winds generated by the swirling nexus of energy surrounding Sam. It was swiftly cut short. In desperation, Danny pulled himself to his feet and ran to try and save his girlfriend, but a sudden and violent pulse of ectoplasmic energy threw him several feet back. When he managed to pull himself back up from the ground Danny realized two things. First, he had his ghost powers back, he could feel them swirling within him. The second thing he realized was that Sam, his beloved girlfriend, was gone. Vanished. The only trace of her that was left behind was the cracked and broken Thermos, the thoroughly trashed Specter Deflector, and the ring that Danny had given her when he had finally realized his feelings for her. There was an ominous, jagged crack dividing the jewel in the center of the ring down the middle.

For a moment all was silent. Tucker was frozen, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open, his hands held limp at his side. His precious PDA fell from his limp fingers and smashed into pieces on the concrete sidewalk, but he didn't care, didn't even flinch. His legs finally giving out, Tucker slumped down, his back sliding heavily against the wall of the building he had just recently used as a shield.

Danny, still on all fours, stared at the spot where Sam had just been standing, his eyes boring disbelieving holes into the small smoking crater that remained. This hadn't happened; it couldn't have happened!

"Sam... no," he choked, tears welling up at the edges of his blue eyes. "No...! SAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!"

Grief gripping his heart with icy claws, Danny broke down in a fit of sobs, his fist pounding into the cracked asphalt of the road. Vaguely, he noticed movement several yards away. With a groan, Skulker pushed several pieces of debris off of him and stood. He was a severe wreck. The great hunter's right arm was gone, his right leg was in pieces, barely attached, and his chest plate was a spider web of cracks.

"Curse that wench," he muttered, glaring about to reorient himself. "She made me waste my shot! Now I'm in no condition to continue the hunt! I'll make that retched female pay for this... err, where'd she go?"

Skulker felt as much as saw the great burst of angry green energy that came from several yards ahead away.

"_SKULKER!!!_" came the hate filled cry.

Looking up from his mumbling, Skulker saw his prey, but something wasn't wrong, very wrong... and the intensity of it made the seasoned, hardened hunter take a step back in recoiling fear.

Danny seemed to be the center of an angry, swirling storm of ectoplasmic energy. His eyes, which were normally green as a ghost were open very wide and glowing an angry red. His teeth were fanged and set in a crazed scowl and his hair was standing on end, blown about in a maelstrom of energy produced wind. Skulker took yet another step back for good measure, surprise and fear etched deeply in his facial expression.

"Skulker..." said Danny in a deathly calm voice. "Bring... Sam... BACK!"

Suddenly Danny was all over him, fists taking whole chucks out of his armor as Skulker tried with all his skill to dodge and get away from this new monster. Finally, the ghost hunter decided to abandon his suit and flee, his tiny worm-like form speeding away in full retreat, not even looking back while Danny screamed at him, his broken exoskeleton lying, scattered and in tiny pieces, at the enraged teenager's feet.

Finally, grief overtook Danny's rage and he slumped to his knees, threw his head back and cried.

"_**SAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!**_" he screamed, his voice ripping out from his throat as a ghastly, ghostly wail that shattered nearby glass and sent shivers down the spines of everyone who heard it. The sound carried with it his despair and all over town people stopped what they were doing and felt their hearts ache in response to the sorrowful howl.

Danny sobbed for several more minutes, his tears slowly forming a puddle beneath him. His shoulders shuddered with each breath and his chest was little more than a tight, thick knot of heartache. His nose was running, his eyes were red and puffy, there was a lump stuck in his throat, but he didn't care. Danny had just witnessed his first real love vanish, wiped from existence right before his eyes. He knew; he felt it deep in his bones, he'd never be the same again.

Finally, his energy spent, Danny's ghost form faded, leaving a battered, bruised, bleeding, and heartbroken young man, barely more than a child, panting and sobbing in the middle of the street. Then, mercifully, unconsciousness took him and he knew no more.

Tucker watched as Danny slumped to the ground and knew that he had to get his remaining friend home so that his wounds could be treated. Biting back his own grief and storing it away for later like the computer files he loved so dearly, Tucker pulled himself up, standing on shaky legs before stumbling over to the prone and unconscious form of his best friend. It almost broke him to see Danny like this, so obviously thrashed, both physically and, judging by the expression on the young hero's face, emotionally. But Tucker firmed up his resolve, grabbed Danny by the shoulders, draped one of Danny's arms across his shoulder and half carried, half dragged Danny the six blocks to his home.

Daen: _Oh dear god… what have you done James?_

James: Well, if you leave a really good review, then you'll find out in the next chapter. Well, you'll find out anyway, but I'd still like some reviews. I want to know what people honestly think about this story so far.

Next time on Danny Phantom: Is Sam really gone for good? Will Danny ever recover from this shattering loss? How will this effect Danny and Tucker's friendship? What will they tell Danny's parents and sister? What will they tell Sam's mom and dad?! And what happens when an old enemy comes to give comfort to Danny in his darker hours… and just who is this Reaper Queen? Find out next time on…

**DANNY PHANTOM: THE REAPER QUEEN**


	2. Suspense

James: I gave the disclaimer in the last chapter. It applies to this and every other chapter of this story. This will be the last time I mention it: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They are all copyrighted to Nickelodeon and to their creator(s). On a side note, what's with the utter lack of reviews? Did I do something wrong? Anyway, on with the story.

_**Last time on Danny Phantom:**_

_**"I've got you now, ghost child!"**_

_**"Any day now would be nice, Tucker!"**_

_**"Virus uploaded."**_

_**"Curse you and your friends, boy!"**_

_**"Give it up, Skulker, you're all out of tricks."**_

_**"I still have THIS one!"**_

_**"W-what... did you do to me?"**_

_**"Prepare yourself boy... this will hurt."**_

_**"You leave Danny alone! I won't let you touch him!!"**_

_**"Sam, no! Don't!!"**_

_**"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"**_

_**"Sam... no... SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM!!!!!!"**_

_**And now the thrilling continuation of...**_

**Danny Phantom in The Reaper Queen**

Tired and sore from the exertion, Tucker reached out, pressed the doorbell and slumped down to his knees on the front stoop of the Fenton Residence, Danny's weight finally proving too much for the out of shape computer geek to bare.

It was Danny's mom, Maddy Fenton who answered the door. As always she was dressed in her standard blue jumpsuit.

"Hello?" she said, looking out the door and over the top of Tucker's head.

Looking down she saw the two boys and her face turned a ghostly shade of white.

"Tucker! Danny!" she cried, kneeling down to take Danny off of Tucker's shoulders.

"What happened to you two? Why does Danny look so beat up?!"

Tucker looked up at Mrs. Fenton, his eyes dark with weariness and his breath still coming in gasps.

"Skulker... attacked..." he muttered. "Danny... Sam... ghost..."

"A ghost?! Attacked Danny?!" exclaimed Maddy before turning her head back into the house. "Jazz! JACK! Come quick! Danny's been attacked!"

The effect was immediate. Jazz, Danny's older, know-it-all sister was behind her mother in a heartbeat. Then, an instant later there came a crash from upstairs and then the sound of breaking glass and a short shout of fright then suddenly Jack Fenton, Danny's clumsy, orange jump suit clad, ghost hunting father slammed heavily into the ground beside the stoop, stood up, pulled out his patented Fenton Ghost Peeler and started brandishing it around at random.

"What's wrong?!" he shouted, still searching for any nearby threats.

It was a full second before he caught sight of his son's pitiful state of health.

"Danny! My god what happened to you?!" he cried, kneeling beside his son. "Who did this to you, Danny? Was it a ghost?! Speak to me son!!"

Jack grabbed his son by the shoulders and began shaking him, trying to wake the unconscious boy. He stopped when Danny gave a soft groan. Danny's eyelids fluttered and opened ever so slightly, then he flinched, gave a hiss of pain and promptly passed out again.

It was then that Maddy Fenton took charge. She stood up, clenched her fist and looked at her husband, a steely look in her eyes.

"Jack!" she said commandingly. "I'll take Danny upstairs to his room and administer first aid. I want you to go to the Ops Center and activate the ghost shield, that ghost attacked Danny once and he might do it again. After that I want you to scan the entire city for any ghost activity. I want this ghost found, peeled like an onion, and then blown apart molecule by molecule. Jazz, I want you to take Tucker into the Kitchen. Get him some food and something warm to drink. Help him calm down and recover, I'm sure he must be exhausted. Sam, I want you to- ... What's wrong, Tucker? Why do you suddenly look like you've seen a ghost. And where's Sam?"

She had finally noticed the missing member of Danny's usual crew of friends. Danny, Tucker, and Sam were _always_ together. She hadn't even thought that Sam wasn't there with the two. And though she didn't know why at first, she did know that if Sam wasn't with Danny now, when he was so badly hurt, then something must be horribly wrong.

Tucker was very pale and he was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. There were tears softly flowing down his face, his teeth were clenched and his hands were balled tightly into fists. And worst of all, he was slowly shaking his head. After a moment Jazz walked up and got down on her knees beside him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulders.

"What happened, Tuck?" she asked him softly. "What happened to Sam, where is she?"

Tucker froze up at the touch, sniffed a little, and looked up into Danny's mom's worried eyes as if seeking forgiveness. Finally he bowed his head and in a quiet voice said,

"Gone... she's gone, Skulker killed her. She... died... saving Danny."

The harsh reality of that statement drove the temperature around the five people on that doorstep to well below freezing. There it was, the bloody reality. Samantha Manson, Goth princess, girlfriend, would-be future daughter-in-law, friend... was dead. There wasn't even a body to bury.

The next few hours were a blur for pretty much everyone. After breaking out into heaving sobs, Tucker was brought into the house by a teary Jazz and after several minutes, the time it took Tucker to compose himself, he told Danny's family about what happened after school with Skulker. Danny had been taken up to his room for first aid and slept through the rest of the day and night, as well as most of the next day. When he awoke he was crying out for Sam and when the reality hit him he grieved. After crying his eyes out, Danny then became a living ghost, a specter, a sad shell of a boy; his depression was absolute. After hearing the whole story from Tucker, Jazz rushed off to her room in tears where she proceeded to sob herself to sleep. And as for Danny's parents... they swore from then on to hunt down the ghost that harmed their son and destroyed his heart. Skulker, the great Hunter, was now the hunted.

Sam's parents did not take the news of her death well; no parent would, after all, not even ones as strange and perky as Sam's. It was the first time in any of Amity Parks' citizens' memories that Jeremy, and especially, Pamela Manson, ever wore black. When they saw them at the funeral ceremony, neither Danny nor Tucker missed the irony. For years Pamela had tried to force her daughter into wearing pinks and yellows and now... now was a sad time for so many people.

Two weeks later they commended Sam's spirit to the great beyond. The funeral was a simple affair, it was held at twilight though you couldn't really tell since it was raining. Large burning braziers were set around the grave site both to provide light, and also warmth. All in all, it looked like a scene out of a cheesy undead monster/horror movie. Danny and Tucker thought that it was all rather poetic, though they still wished that they were anywhere else but there.

There were many people there; Danny and Tucker's families of course, as well as Sam's Mother, Father and Grandmother, but also there were several people from Casper High, including Sam's teacher, Mr. Lancer, and a rather shame faced Dash Baxter, the local football star and school bully. The minister was a gaunt, and slender man. Very tall and pale with high cheek bones, hollow cheeks, a strong jaw and large baleful eyes. Danny thought he looked a little like a shaved great Dane. His voice was deep and gravely as he gave the eulogy.

The ceremony lasted for about three hours in all, ending with the lowering of the empty coffin, it was pink as requested by Sam's mother, but on its lid were several Goth symbols painted in black as well as Sam's name, printed in heavy, spiky, gothic letters. Pamela was quite proud of herself for designing it, considering it to be her final compromise with her daughter. She thought that Sam would probably have loved it. Then she broke down in another fit of sobs.

After the funeral people began leaving in droves to take shelter from the soaking rain. Finally only Danny's family, Tucker, and Sam's parents remained. They gave Danny a wide berth, blaming him for their only child's death but pitying him for the pain of his own loss. They gave a very quiet and brief farewell to Danny's Parents and to Tucker and then left.

"Danny," said Maddy, hesitantly. "We should go. It's getting dark and we're soaked through. We'll all catch a cold if we stay much longer."

Danny ignored her. He simply stared at Sam's headstone. It was large, gothic looking, and had a rather frightening gargoyle statue perched on it. The gargoyle had angel wings.

"Yeah, dude, your mom's right," said Tuck, placing a hand on Danny's shoulder. "It's time to go home."

"You guys go ahead," came Danny's sullen reply. "I'm going to stay here for a little longer."

"But, Danny-" started Jazz before she was interrupted by her brother.

"Just go home," he said, his voice clipped and harsh. "I'll be fine so leave me alone."

And so they did. After giving him a few more words of comfort, Tucker went home to find solace in his family and Jack, Maddy and Jazz went back home to continue work on hunting down Skulker and bringing him to justice.

Danny, meanwhile sat down in the wet grass and mud at the edge of Sam's grave and stared blankly at her name written on the headstone. Tears streamed down his face though even he couldn't tell. His clothes were soaked through, his skin was covered in goose bumps, he shivered from the cold and his breath came out in freezing wisps. His mind spiraled down into the depths of despair. He began blaming himself and everyone else for Sam's death. He began to hate himself. For his weakness, for his arrogance, and for his stupidity in ever letting Sam near harm's way. He knew he was being irrational, but just then he didn't care. That was when he thought of something that gave him pause. If Sam was dead, then perhaps she was a ghost. And if she were a ghost... then he knew just where to look for her. An almost manic glint flashed behind his eyes as he started to stand up.

"You won't find her there," came a hauntingly familiar voice. One which filled Danny with sudden rage. "Even if she's dead, even if she's in the Ghost Zone, there's no way you'll find her, dip stick."

Danny whirled around in a flash, his eyes glowing green as he made the transformation from human to ghost in record time. There, standing before him, her guitar strapped to her back and her hair usually short, stood Ember McLain, the rocker girl ghost and one of Danny's usual enemies. The only thing that kept Danny from venting all of his anger and sadness on the obvious target that Ember provided was the way she looked. She seemed rather uncomfortable, subdued, vulnerable even. It was so unusual for the loud, brash rock and roll ghost chick to be so quiet, so... sad? But no, this was Ember! She had to be up to no good, and Danny was _not_ going to put up with her tonight. He'd give her once chance to go back to the ghost zone willingly, and then he would destroy her.

"What do you want, McLain," he said, his dripping with hate like a snake with venom. "Come to laugh at me? Trying to destroy me? Well you've picked the WRONG day to pick a fight with me, ghost. Go back to the ghost zone now before I rip you apart! Need I remind you that it was YOUR boyfriend that killed my girlfriend, or what I can do to you if you give me a reason?"

Ember shook her head sadly but instead of retreating she calmly pulled her guitar from her back, and took several steps forward, halving the distance between her and Danny. Of course, thinking she was readying to attack, Danny lowered himself into a fighting stance, ready to strike her down. His hands began glowing a deep green, charged with ectoplasmic energy. But he was thoroughly thrown for a loop when Ember gently, hesitantly set her guitar on the ground and backed away from it, her hands inclined in surrender.

"I'm not going to fight you, baby pop," she said, her voice soft and subdued. "Well, granted I _was_ going to destroy you when I heard you were weakened. Once... _that man_... came back to the Ghost Zone he ranted for almost an hour about how he was an instant away from defeating you and mounting your head on his wall. I saw an opportunity to finally be rid of you and I rushed over to take it... that's when I saw you and your twerpy little friend. You were still out cold then but... the look on your face... once I heard about your little girlfriend I... I just couldn't bring myself to do it. You reminded me too much of myself for me to want to destroy you."

Danny glared daggers at Ember. He didn't believe what he was hearing. First she admitted to trying to kill him in his sleep. Then she said how she felt sorry for him. And now she was comparing him to herself, talking about how they were alike? They were nothing alike!

"I am _nothing_ like you, Ember," growled Danny, throwing his arms out wide in a dramatic gesture. "I'm not evil for one thing. I'm not some heartless ghost bent on serving only myself! _I don't try to kill people!!!_"

Ember's eyes grew sharp and her hair flared out, setting Danny once more on guard, but her outburst died before it ever got started. Instead she seemed more put out than ever. She heaved a sigh and lowered her head.

"Not all ghosts are evil, Dip- err... D-Danny," she said, struggling a little with the unfamiliar use of his name. "We all have our own separate motivations, our own struggles and our own pain. I know I have a lot to answer for, Danny... but... if you'll let me... I'd like to try to make up for it... I'd like to... be your friend?"

She seemed more uncomfortable than ever. She had never, not once in Danny's memory looked so meek. Danny didn't buy it for a second, and her sad attempt at trickery only enraged him further.

"Do you really expect me to believe that crap?!" he demanded, taking a threatening step forward. "What do ghosts know about pain or friendship or love?! What do ghosts care if someone dies?!"

By now Ember was stunned by Danny's outburst. She hadn't expected this; for him to be so irrational was a bit unusual, and disturbing. But he seemed to be cooling off a little now, though it was clear from his snarl that he was far from ready to let his anger go.

"For a ghost, death isn't that big of a deal. You're already dead so what do you care?" he spat, his voice a little quieter but no less venomous. "It's not like you have hearts... you have to be alive first, so how can you stand there and tell me that you feel pain? When have you ever lost someone _you_ loved, huh? Never, and that's because you _can't_ love. You're just a ghost; a heartless, hateful, and selfish ghost. You could never understand."

For a moment, Ember's anger got the better of her. She glared heatedly at Danny, who had for so long been her most troublesome enemy. Her fists clenched tightly at her sides and her hair flared out like a miniature blue bonfire. Danny, who had been expecting to be attacked since first hearing Ember's voice that night, forgot for a moment that he was the one ready to go on the offensive and leapt back, dropping into a defensive stance and readying himself for the fight he was sure would come. But after only a few seconds, Ember, in a show of great willpower, reined in her anger by reminding herself that she had just found someone who might finally be able to understand her. She wasn't about to destroy him over some petty temper tantrum... not this time anyway.

"You know for someone so powerful, you're pretty dense," she said, giving him a weak glare. "You've been fighting ghosts for years now, Danny, and you still know next to nothing about us. I thought that you of all people would know that every ghost was once... a living person. A human being just like anyone else. Which means we've all had lives, though I'm willing to bet some of us have been ghosts so long that we don't remember them... but I remember mine very well and let me tell you, baby pop, I knew plenty about love when I was alive. And plenty about loss too. Maybe next time you should actually _listen_ to my song _before_ you shove me into that thermos of yours."

Danny was surprised; both by Ember's gentle, if a little harsh, tone, but also by the fact that just then she seemed so... so human. This definitely wasn't the hard rock, heavy hitting, egomaniacal, and violent ghost chick he was familiar with. This was a new Ember, one without the harsh attitude, one that was showing him her true mind, her sadness. Stunned by these revelations, Danny relaxed a little and stood up straight, staring at Ember for a moment, sizing her up as if trying to find any falsehoods in the way she held herself. Finally he sighed and said to her,

"Fine then, I'll bite. Let me hear this big story of yours about your loss and your pain. I'm listening. But if I think you're lying to me, if you deceive me or do anything suspicious, then I'm going to send you on a one way trip back to the ghost zone. And this time, I'll make certain you stay there."

For a moment, Ember hesitated. She looked even more uncomfortable than ever. She wouldn't meet Danny's eyes and she was holding her right arm protectively across her chest, rubbing her left bicep in a nervous fashion. She seemed to be thinking hard about something important. Finally she bit her lower lip, nodded and came to her conclusion. Looking up she cast a determined gaze towards Danny and said,

"Alright. I'll tell you about my pain... about how I died. But not here. I don't want to risk anyone over hearing my story. I'll trust you with it, cuz I think you'll understand, but this is between us, got it? Now, follow me."

With that she picked up her guitar and started moving deeper into the Cemetery. Danny, after a moment's hesitation followed after her floating form. His curiosity was piqued now and he was determined to hear what Ember had to say. He had a strange feeling that it was something very important... for the both of them.

Meanwhile, in a remote corner, on the very edge of the Ghost Zone...

It had been by chance that, as she was exploring the ghost zone, looking for a place to call home, that she heard it.

"My my... what _do_ we have here?" came the voice of a man shrouded in the shadows of the Ghost Zone.

A man who had not been seen in over three months. Not since his attempt at ruling the world; not since he nearly destroyed both the world of the living, and of the dead. A man whose heart was soaked through with evil. A man who was both ghost and human.

She knew his voice instantly. Knew it as well as her own, and it chilled her to her ghostly core when she heard it. She had thought she was well hidden, that there was no way he could find her, she thought that he had forgotten her; or rather she had hoped he had. Looking around, nearly panicking, she saw him floating not far away, his attention set on something. His back was to her. She very nearly sighed in relief; he had not noticed her yet, it seemed.

The man moved and a ghostly light revealed his features. She nearly sobbed with fright; her fears had been confirmed. His wild white hair, his evil red eyes, his sadistic, sharp-toothed grin. There could be no mistake. After months of hiding in the depths of space, Vlad Masters, aka Vlad Plasmius, Danny's arch nemesis was back. Her father was home.

Danielle "Dani" Phantom, a female clone of Danny that had been created by Vlad, and Danny's adopted cousin, knew that if she were discovered by her creator and former father, then her existence would be brutally cut short. But now she could see what he had been looking at so intently and suddenly felt a deep chill run through her.

It was very strange. There, not even twenty yards away, floated the form of a young girl, almost a woman, but there was something terribly wrong with her. For one thing she was almost naked, what little remained of her clothing hung in wisps about her, barely managing to preserve her modesty. Half of her hair was short, straight, cropped to her earlobe and was whiter than freshly fallen snow. The other half of her head was covered in very long, unkempt, wavy tresses that floated about her as if in water; that half of her hair was colored a deep, reddish, dark violet. The girl was obviously unconscious and looked to be badly hurt. Her form was unstable and Dani watched as she faded in and out, parts of her body turning into ectoplasmic ooze before stabilizing once more. What was even more interesting were her wings. One was a long, powerful looking wing with deep black plumage. The other was withered and skeletal, a few wispy looking white feathers clinging to it. But the strangest thing of all was not her appearance, but rather the feeling she gave off. It was quite obvious to both Vlad and Dani that this girl was neither living, nor dead. And yet she wasn't like them; half human and half ghost. It was as if... as if she were death itself, not a ghost, not a human, certainly not a halfa, but something else, something very different.

Vlad took a very quick interest in this... thing... this girl. He knew that she was like nothing he had ever seen before, and his imagination whirled with possibilities. That she was powerful, he had no doubt. But in her condition, all that power could quickly vanish, along with her form. Luckily, from his experience with that infernal girl, Dani, he knew how to stabilize her. And if he could find a way to control her in the process, all the better. With this new entity he would finally have all the power he would need to control not only the human world, which had cursed him, but the ghost zone as well.

Losing himself to his twisted fantasies, Vlad began to laugh, and laugh... and laugh some more. His evil laughter echoed through the ghost zone. Dani could feel the girl's power as clearly as Vlad could and knew that he would stop at nothing to use her to his advantage. She also knew that she did not know enough about the situation to make a move. She was not strong enough to face Plasmius alone, but if she went to find Danny then Vlad would have plenty of time to escape to whatever lair he had created for himself and would be impossible to find. So, after a moment's thought, Dani came to her decision. She knew what she had to do.

And so, his laughter played out and his plans laid, Plasmius trapped his newest experiment in a force beam and dragged her through the ghost zone towards his new laboratory. He never even noticed the little ghost girl following behind him, remaining invisible and keeping to the shadows. No, he had bigger things to worry about... like conquest and, more importantly, revenge.

Knowing that Vlad would stop at nothing to use this poor girl to his advantage, and knowing that she alone had the knowledge to stop him, Dani took Vlad's moment of distracted elation to make her escape. Turning invisible she made a beeline for the nearest exit from the Ghost Zone. She knew what she had to do, knew that she could not fight Plasmius alone. She needed Danny, no... _both_ _worlds_ needed Danny, and with that in mind she sped off to find him. She only hoped that she wouldn't be too late.

James: Not too much to say on this one except... why? Why were there ZERO reviews for the first chapter? I mean was it REALLY that bad?! I mean seriously, one of the main reasons I post these stories on the net is to have them reviewed... please, I implore you, if you read this story then take a moment or two and leave a review. It would make me so very happy.


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